Readers wanting more balanced portrayals of troubled characters should try Ron Koertge's Stoner and Spaz (2001) or Corey Ann...
Going on 16, Hailey has "the eyes of a ninety-six-year-old" due to macular degeneration.
Encouraged by her adoptive moms, Hailey keeps a list of fears and increasingly risky behaviors to conquer before her sight disappears. When her band, Blinders On, plays for the school radio station, she meets Kyle. Traumatized by bullying and berated by his mentally ill single mother, Kyle battles his own anxiety. Both teens are white. Their alternating narration forms a believably messy picture of hormonally charged friendship as they cross off their worst fears. Unfortunately, the plot's long list of teen issues courts stereotypes and gives short shrift to poignant incidents and likable secondary characters. The kids’ awareness of these stereotypes only highlights them; for instance, when Hailey feels Kyle's face so she'll "know how to see people when [she's] blind," Kyle thinks, "I'd seen that in movies, but people really did that?" (Generally, they don't, which is acknowledged in the text, but Hailey still does it.) Two characters' disparate reactions to a shared trauma sympathetically raise questions of survivor guilt and denial, but one character quotes platitudes so relentlessly that, lacking further development, he risks being reduced to a plucky sidekick. While teens have complicated lives that don't necessarily unfold in order of importance, such nuanced subjects as post-traumatic stress don't deserve to be foils for the sake of a romance.
Readers wanting more balanced portrayals of troubled characters should try Ron Koertge's Stoner and Spaz (2001) or Corey Ann Haydu's OCD Love Story (2013) . (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-1693-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904794
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans.
Romantic complications between a trained killer and one of her captors drive this sequel to Watch Me (2025).
Appealing to readers who prefer their romantic dramas to be light on action and heavy on long passages of banter, bitter sibling arguments, and tortured reflections, Mafi continues the tale of Rosabelle Wolff, the flaxen-haired assassin from the dystopic Reestablishment, and magnetic, “impossibly stunning” James Anderson, her nemesis-turned-lover who’s still trying to take down the regime. Now desperate to accomplish several secret missions, Rosa easily escapes from one of The New Republic’s prisons, where she was left in the series opener, and, dressed in “a little kid’s cat onesie,” eludes all pursuers except for James, who can seemingly find her at will. Enigmatic Rosa responds unpredictably to many human contacts—including with violence, temporary death (one of her abilities), or a sudden panic attack. Along with the central pair of rivals and lovers, James’ older brother, Aaron, shares the narration. Bestseller Mafi tucks in several subplots, including, notably, a cameo from Juliette Ferrars, the protagonist of the original Shatter Me series, who’s undergoing a scarily difficult pregnancy. Amid the slowly simmering rising action, the author delivers a revelation and a twist that set up a potential series climax. Some ethnic diversity is present in the supporting cast.
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans. (Dystopian. 14-adult)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780063419056
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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